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DT1Q217D3V 

III 


' 


HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES.— January  20,  1SG3. — Head 
first  and  second  times,  and  ordered  to  be  printed. 

[By  Mr.  Foster.] 


EESOLCTIONS 

Respecting  the  present  war.  and  the  causes  leading  thereto'. 

1  Whereas,    The  -war  now    existing  between    the  Confederate 

2  States  and  the  United  States,  had  its  origin  from  bad  and  wicked 
:)  fanatics,  known  as  the  abolition  party,  whose  organization  for  a 
■1-Mlong  scries  of  years  was  simply  contemptible,  holding  its  orgies 
.3     in  obscure  club  rooms;  fanaticism,  infidelity  and  every  revolting 

6  form  of  social  heresy  Hocked  to  its  standard,  and  constituted  its 

7  only  support. 

1  In  the  lapse  of  time,  however,  as  the  South  advanced  in  wealth 

2  and  power;  as  Southern  men,  ever  pre-eminent  in  the  foremost 

0  ranks  of  American  statesmen,  were  becoming  more  prominent 

1  and  influential  in  the  councils  of  the*  nation,  a  formidable  opposi- 
o'p  tion  was  presented  to  that  selfish,  perverse  policy,  under  which 
6     the  South  had  been  long  and  severely  oppressed  ;  this  vile  and 


7  wicked  faction  was,  however,  .soon  embraced  and  taken  into  full 

8  fellowship  by  the  free-soil  party  o:  the  North,  and  a  nucleus  Avas 
!)  thus  formed  of  a  political  organization  which  destroyed  the  peace 

10  and  harmony  of  the  nation,  and  finally  severed  the  Union. 

1  At  the  conclusion  of  the  Mexican  war,  when  we  had  acquired 

2  an  immense  territory  in  the  West,  an  effort  was  made  by  this 
:}  partj  to  exclude  the  institution  of  slavery  from  those  territories, 
4  and  the  so-called  Wilmot  Proviso  was  the  first  blast  that  roused 

0  the  people  of  the  South  from  their  dreams  of  peace  and  security. 

1  After  a  long  and  bitter  strife,  the  conservative  and  patriotic 

2  feelings  of  the  American  people  prevailed,  and  the  great  eompro- 

3  mise  of  1850  was  effected.     The  hearts  of  patriots  every  where 

4  were  filled  with  joy  and  exultation,  at  what  they  conceived  towc 
o  a  happy  deliverance  from  the  perils  of  disunion.  But  their  joy 
G  was  of  short  duration.     The  intolerant  and  destructive  spirit  of 

7  the  North  was  not  subdued.     This  wras  soon  manifested  by  open 

8  resistance  to  Federal  laws,  embodying  and  enforcing  a  provision 

9  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  for  the  recapture  and 

10  rendition  of  fugitive  slaves,  escaping  from  the  Southern  States. 

1 1  This  resistance  was  effected,  in  some  instances,  under  the  forms 

12  and   sanctions  of  Northern   State  legislation,  and  in  others  by 

13  the  violence  of  lawless  mobs. 


3 

"TV 

<"  1         Not  onl v  were  the  rights  of  the  South  thus  invaded,  but  the      #. 

2  Republican  party  attempted  by  congressional  legislation,  to  ex- 

3  elude  the  South,  with  its  institutions  from  the  territories  belong- 

4  ing,  in  common,  to  all  the  people  of  the  United  States,  and  pur- 

5  chased  mainly  by  Southern  valor  and  blood. 

1  We  appealed  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  and 

2  it  was  there  decided  thatjsuch  legislation  by  Congress,  would  be 

3  unconstitutional.     But  the  t>lack  Republican  party,  impelled  by 

4  fiendish  fanaticism,  and  affecting  that  there  was  a  law  of  con- 

5  science  inscribed  upon  the  heart  of  man,  by  the  finger  of  God, 
G  which  was  a  higher  law  than  the  written  Constitution,  refused  to 

7  abide  by,  and  boldly  made  war  against  the  decision  of  this  august 

8  tribunal,  and  proclaimed  in  their  party  platform  that  they  would 

9  refuse  to  obey  this  decision,  and  would  have  it  reversed  by  chang- 

10  ing  the  organization  of  the  Supreme  Court.     More  than  this,  in 

1 1  their  recognised  organs  and  public  speeches,  they  not  only  made 

1 2  war  upon  the  institution  of  slavery,  but  went  so  far  as  to  proclaim 

13  the  equality  of  the  black  with  the  white  race,  thus  adding  the 

14  grossest  insults  to  the   past  and    contemplated   injuries    to  the 

15  Southern  people. 

1  The  triumph  of  the  Black  Republican  party  in  the  Presidential 

2  election  in  1S60,  upon  such  professions  and  principles,  consum- 


4 

3  mated  the  disruption  of  the  Union,  and  involved  the  country  in 

4  all  the  horrors  of  civil  war,  which  sad  calamity,  the  South,  con- 

5  scious   of  its   rectitude,   used  all   fair  and  honorable  means  to 
G  avert. 

1  The  success  of  this  party,  in  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln 

2  to  the  Presidency,  satisfied  the    Southern    people  that  the  aboli- 

3  tionized  puritan  of  the    North,  and   the   frank  cavalier    of  the 

4  South,  could  no  longer  live  under  tlie  same  government  and  laws, 

0  and  we  asked  to  be  permitted  to  depart  in  peace  from  so  hateful 
G  and  unworthy  a  connection,  and  to  share  our  portion  of  the 
7  burdens  of  the  old  government ;  but  this  just  and  Constitutional 
<S  request  the  Black  Republican  party,  with  its  characteristic  and 
<)  vindictive  injustice,    denied    us,  and   have    attempted,  with   the 

10  sword,  to  coerce  us  to  maintain  our  connection  with  them,  in  the 

11  prosecution  of  which  wicked  purpose,  they  have  perpetrated  and 

12  continue  to  perpetrate  acts  revolting  to  civilization  and  disgrace^ 

13  ful  to  humanity. 

1  Their  fiendish  passions,  not  satiated   with  the  wanton  destruc- 

2  tion  of  life  and   property,  with  the  most    brutal    violence    upon 

3  the  persons  of  our  unprotected  females ;  with    the    unjustifiable 

4  seizure  of  non-combatants  and  our  ministers  of  religion,  and 
•ri  their  incarceration  in  loathsome   dungeons :  with  the    unlawful 


(i  impressment  of  our  negroes,  and  compelling  them  to  leave  their 

7  homes  and  their  owners,  tearing  them,  by  force,  from  their  wives 

8  and  children,  and  thus  adding  incalculable  sufferings  to  that  class 

9  they  hypocritically  profess  to   serve,  and  whose    destitution  and 

10  helplessness,  in  the  abolition  camps,  from  exposure,  want  of  pro- 

1 1  per  food  and  comfortable    quarters,  such    as    they  have  been  ac- 

12  customed  to  at  home,  is  most  frightful  and    appalling. 

1  In  addition  to  this  dark  catalogue   of  most   shameful  and  bar- 

2  barons  outrages  ;  after  having  met  with   repeated  disasters  and 
o  the  most  signal  defeats,  in  attempting  to    subjugate    the    South, 

4  they  have  finally  resorted  to  the  yet  more  startling  and  inhuman 

5  policy  of  creating  a  servile  insurrection,  and   instigating  the  in- 

6  discriminate  butchery  of  helpless  women  and  children,  by  procla- 
?  mation,  through  their   abolition  President,    conferring  freedom 

8  upon,  and  arming  our  slaves,  an    act  of  such    glaring   turpitude 

9  and  demoniac  savageness,,  as  to  elicit  a  powerful  and  impressive 

10  rebuke  from  the  honest,  fearless  and  still    virtuous    Democratic 

1 1  citizens  of  their  own  government,  and  the  universal    indignation 

12  and  reprobation  of  all  civilized  nations  :     Now  therefore, 

1  Be  it   resolved   by    the    Congress   of   the    Confederate    States    of 

2  America  :     That  the  President  be,  and  he  is  hereby  requested  to 
«?>  m^ke  known  to  the  abolition  Executive  of  the  Federal  Govern- 


4  merit,  that  we,  as  a  nation,  are  determined  to  bo,  and   forever  to 

5  remain  free  and  scperate  from,  and   disconnected   with,   so   base 
C  and  corrupt  a  people  as   have  wickedly  and   wantonly  destroyed 

7  the  greatest  government  ever  constructed  by  the  wisdom  of   man 

8  and  cemented  with  the  blood  of  true    and  devoted  patriots  ;   that 

9  we  defy  his  power  and  scorn  his  odious,  abolition    proclamation, 

10  and  that  a  severe  and  righteous  retaliation  shall  be  visited  upon 

1 1  every  abolition  officer  engaged,  or  in    any  manner   employed    in 

12  carrying  out  the    provisions    of  said   proclamation,  and   that  for 

13  every  slave  abducted,   seized,  or  in  any  manner  whatever  pro- 

14  tccted  by  the   abolition   army,  as   well   for  the   past   as  in   the 
\o  future,  full  remuneration  shall  be  had  for  the  same. 

1  Be  it  further  resolved  :     That    if  the    conservative    Democratic 

2  citizens  of  the  North-western  States,  of  the    United   States,  will 

3  forever  and  eternally  dissolve  all  ties    and    connections  with  the 

4  puritanical,  God-forsaken,  mischief-making  New  England  States, 

5  that  are  justly  responsible  for  the  disruption  of  the  old   govern- 
G  ment,  and  all  the  distressing  calamities  growing  out  of  the  same, 

7  that  the  Confederate  States  of  America  are  both  willing  and  pre- 

8  pared  to  enter  into  such  friendly  commercial  treaties  as  shall  be 

9  entirely    satisfactory  to  the    said  North-western    States,  and  to 

10  make  such  other  and  further  arrangements   as  may  prove    to  be 

1 1  mutually  beneficial  and  just. 


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in  2011  with  funding  from 
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«*/.. 


*•* 


Hollinger  Corp. 
PH8.5 


